Posted on 03/18/2019 1:26:25 PM PDT by DUMBGRUNT
During the experiment, 26 participants each sat with their eyes closed in a dark, quiet chamber lined with electrical coils. These coils manipulated the magnetic field inside the chamber such that it remained the same strength as Earth’s natural field but could be pointed in any direction. Participants wore an EEG cap that recorded the electrical activity of their brains while the surrounding magnetic field rotated in various directions.
...Joseph Kirschvink, a neurobiologist and geophysicist at Caltech, and colleagues studied alpha waves to determine whether the brain reacts to changes in magnetic field direction. Alpha waves generally dominate EEG readings while a person is sitting idle but fade when someone receives sensory input, like a sound or touch.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencenews.org ...
Sounds like a fun night out!
Dogs tend to align N/S before peeing.
I can. Always been able to.
If birds and bats can, why not humans?
My climbing partner of many years had an amazing ‘sense of direction’.
Pre GPS, He was good with maps but did not whip them out every ten minutes.
Some people just seem to have it?
The magnetic field always pointed down to me. Everything is sagging.
Where's Einstein when you need him.
I’m of two minds on this report.
Did particpants get MEEGGA caps for participating?
As a pilot, once in air and enroute, never a clue without instruments. It most certainly is a terra firma sense for me.
Same here...
Birds can.
I think some mammals can.
It’s not so important for humans, so it would be weak if it is the case.
My great uncle, who grew up as, and lived his life as a dairyman, said one should always orient cows stalls North-South to get the highest milk production.
Me too. Except two times. Both flying into a different city at night.
In Phoenix my sense of direction was off 90 degrees for the whole week. Even though I KNEW in my mind which way was north, I still couldn’t make my sense of direction correct.
The other time was Ft. Lauderdale. In that case I was 180 degrees off. And knew it. I kept having to tell myself,”Ok, I want to go towards the Ocean, so go the opposite way you think it is.” And that worked.
Maybe the fact I flew in messed me up. It was very disconcerting the whole time, both cities.
Butterflies are migrating north. Thousands were flitting past the other day, all directly north. It was an amazing site and experience.
They must have these magneto receptors also.
“Participants wore an EEG cap that recorded the electrical activity of their brains while the surrounding magnetic field rotated in various directions.”
~~~
I know this is a dumb statement, but don’t EEG measure the brain’s electrical activity? And to measure the electrical activity don’t you have to read the electro-magnetic field the electrical activity creates?
errrm...... Why wouldn’t the test just be measuring the changes in the field influence by the coil rather than changes in the field created by the brain which was influence by the coil????
I always wondered about a connection with iron. Blacksmiths who forge iron tools and knives understand that orientating the piece being worked on to magnetic north and south helps align the molecules lengthwise along the work as it’s being drawn out to give it better linear strength. Why wouldn’t the high iron content of human blood cells also orient it’s self magnetic north and south? Could there be a sensor in the brain that reads this iron content orientation and process it into the four directions?
Just one of the reasons I will never return.
So folks in an MRI, with a field 15,000 times stronger than Earth’s field (65000 nanoTesla) should definitely sense that.
Only females.
Actually... that is a good question. Could it have been the instruments “causing” the effect rather than “reading” an effect?
Agreed on our blood chemistry. Also for certain types of “dowsing” for metal pipes or even plastic pipes in some soils, although that is the earths electromagnetic field that folks respond to. The wands (metal) are just the indicator dial of what one’s body is picking up. It worked once for me - but usually it doesn’t. While some folks can do it easily all the time. Maybe I need to drink more Gaterade with the electrolytes!?
I’ve heard people say that sleeping with their head to the north helps with their sense of direction.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.